Hey everybody, Mike here with BackpackingTV. After a cold night in the woods in my down jacket, I started digging into the question a lot of us don’t really ask until it’s too late: is down actually ethical? In this video I break down what down is (feathers from ducks and geese—though I’m just going to call them ducks, because what is a goose but a bigger duck) and the big reality check: for any down product, that bird is dead. Down isn’t like wool where you shear it and it grows back, and ducks aren’t killed specifically for down—down is a byproduct of meat production. Where the ethical problem can show up is unaccredited supply chains, especially the practice of live plucking, which is every bit as unpleasant as it sounds. The good news is there are standards that help you avoid that, like the Responsible Down Standard (RDS), which was started by the Textile Exchange (with help from The North Face). I also talk about how a bunch of major brands participate, and how Patagonia has its own even stricter approach. My main takeaway: if you’re buying a down jacket, do a quick check for RDS (or similar) sourcing info—even if it’s buried on the brand’s website—and pay attention to where the down comes from, since live plucking is illegal in places like the US and Europe.